Liquidation World

The Vancouver Canucks have about 24 hours to cut down their roster to the 23 man squad for opening day. In case you haven’t seen already, the Canucks had a lot (I mean, A LOT!) of players trying out for the club.

So let’s look at who has been liquidated so far… Ok that’s a bit gruesome. Let’s see who didn’t make the cut and why.

Here is a list of all the players cut since the start of main training camp, along with comments on the more notable moves:

Victor Oreskovich
Yann Sauve – still recovering from a concussion suffered when being hit by a car in Vancouver. Tough break. We hope he gets well soon.
Sergei Shirokov – came to camp with fitness issues, although he assumed he was following his regimen properly. Whatever, fatso. You’re the new Wellwood.
Lee Sweatt
Billy Sweatt – notable because he’s on twitter and that’s awesome.
Jordan Schroeder – singled out by coach Alain Vigneault as just not being quite ready for primetime. He’s their version of Nazim Kadri, although I hate comparing anything related to Toronto to Vancouver.
Nolan Baumgartner
Mario Bliznak
Kevin Connauton
Evan Oberg
Prab Rai
Chris Tanev
Aaron Volpatti
Sean Zimmerman
David Shantz
Stefan Schneider
Shawn Weller
Marco Rosa
Travis Ramsey

Steven Anthony
Adam Polasek
Sawyer Hannay
Alex Friesen

P.O. Morin
Matt Fraser

Brendan Morrison – As much as hometown fans wanted their beloved #7 return, he just didn’t fit. Gillis and AV made it clear, over and over again, that they wanted the bottom 6 forwards to be bigger and grittier. And BMo just doesn’t fit that bill. It didn’t sit well with Morrison though, as he thought he was real close to making the team. He’s a little bitter and, as he took his talents to the Red Mile, he’ll be looking to play his guts out whenever Calgary plays Vancouver.

Darcy Hordichuk
Shane O’Brien

Both SOB and Hordi were victims of the Canucks cap crunch, and of being terrible. Hordichuk was a liability all season last year and scored a grand total of 2 points. So unless his replacement scores 7 own goals and breaks Luongo’s knee caps, it can’t be much worse. So therefore any change looks to be positive. As for O’Brien, he didn’t have a strong camp, he’s overpaid, and Andrew Alberts played well through pre-season. If Double-A keeps up his solid play through the start of the season, he’ll be the permanent #6 D this year. SOB just didn’t look engaged or switched-on during pre-season so he got waived.

Both players cleared waivers, and are expected to report to Manitoba to continue their careers. Do they have a Roxy in Winnipeg? I’m sure O’Brien will find it.

The Canucks will likely wait until the very last minute to announce their roster and make their final cuts. They’ll do this so that they can maximize the cap relief given for placing Sami Salo and possibly Alex Burrows on LTIR. Lawrence Gilman, the Canucks’ capologist, has some serious work to do in the next 24 hours to ensure that the club is onside with their cap strategy and will be under the $59.4 million cap come Wednesday at 9 AM PT.

I personally expect Schaefer to get signed once the Canucks figure out exactly how much cap space they have, and if they can squeeze him in. Eddie Lack and Cody Hodgson are still with the Canucks, although both are expected to be returned to Manitoba this week. Cory Schneider may end up returning to Manitoba on a temporary basis, just to provide some day-to-day cap relief. Ugh, it’s complicated. Read Iain McIntyre’s article today to get some good insight on what’s going on.

Tomorrow is a big day for Gillis and the Canucks management, as it sets the tone for the season, based on who’s in and who’s out. The Canucks already whittled down their camp by huge scores over the past 10 days. But tomorrow’s cuts are the most important.

What’s up your sleeve, Gillis?